Because last night's game at Yankee Stadium was between the 1st place team in the American League Eastern Division, ours, and the 2nd place team in the Division, the Tampa Bay Rays. It's a little early to say it's a particularly big game, and we did go in with a 6-game lead. But we are now in the 2nd half of the season. There will be bigger games than this in which we need to trust him. Can we?
Last night was The Travis d'Arnaud Show, literally from beginning to end. James Paxton once again had a bad 1st inning, and pitched much better the rest of the way. He went 6 innings, allowing 2 runs, both on solo home runs to d'Arnaud, with 7 hits and 2 walks, striking out 7. The homers came as the leadoff of the game, and again in the 3rd inning.
The Yankees' bats should have been able to overcome 2 runs. They did. Edwin Encarnacion hit a home run in the 4th inning, Gio Urshela tied the game with a dinger in the 7th, and then Encarnacion hit another tater in the 8th, with Aaron Hicks aboard, to make it 4-2. That should have made a winning pitcher out of Chad Green, who pitched a scoreless 7th and 8th.
But, as so often happens, Chapman made the 9th inning "interesting." This time, in the words of the great comedian who just died at age 90, Laugh-In veteran Arte Johnson, "Verrrry interesting... but stupid!"
First, Kevin Kiermaier led off the top of the 9th with a grounder to 3rd, and Urshela couldn't quite throw him out. It was scored as a hit. Then, Guillermo Heredia singled. The tying runs were on. That's when Chapman did what he usually does, and struck guys out: Willy Adames and Joey Wendle. All he had to do was prevent d'Arnaud from driving in 2 runs.
But instead of throwing his best fastballs, Chapman threw a hanging slider, and d'Arnaud drove in 3 runs, with his 3rd home run of the game, an opposite-field short-porcher to right, 355 feet. Funny, but nobody ever says it's too easy to hit home runs at Yankee Stadium II when it's the other team with a short-porch job that wouldn't be out of any other ballpark.
Aside from Aaron Judge drawing a 2-out walk, the Yankees went down quietly in the bottom of the 9th. Rays 5, Yankees 4. WP: Andrew Kittredge (1-0). SV: Oliver Drake (1). LP: Chapman (2-2).
This was Chapman's 6th blown save of the season, and the most important, since it came against the team chasing us for 1st place in the AL East. With this result, the Rays close to within 5 games of the Yankees, 7 in the loss column. The Boston Red Sox won, so they close to within 9 games behind the Yankees, 10 in the loss column.
Can we trust Chapman down the stretch? In the Playoffs, if we get that far? If we get even further, in the World Series? Yes, he helped the Chicago Cubs win the 2016 World Series, but he did blow a lead in Game 7, even though the Cubs eventually won it with another pitcher closing out the 10th inning.
Someone suggested that, when Luis Severino or Domingo German gets off the Injured List, one of them should become the closer. German has relieved. But he and Severino have both done so well as starters, I'm not sure it's a good idea.
Dellin Betances has begun throwing at the Yankees' minor-league complex in Tampa, but while he's been a very good 7th inning and 8th inning pitcher, he's been dreadful as the closer. I don't think we should try him again.
But the time has come to decide how much of a future Aroldis Chapman has as the Yankees' closer. We may need to make a move before next season. We may need to make a move at this season's trading deadline, which is now just 15 days away.
The series continues tonight. CC Sabathia starts against Ryan Stanek.
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